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Substrate-independent minds

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I guess it comes down to what they mean when they say

The researchers had a hypothesis that the Brainnet could outperform individuals brains via the BtBI's distributed and parallel computing architecture. The Brainet rats were said to "consistently outperformed individual rats," in all tasks set. It was observed that the Brainet performance improved over time.

So i take your point that if the array used 5 rat brains, and the performance was that of 5 brains and no more ,then yes it outperforms an individual rat brain.

The weather forecast experiment intrgues me though, it suggests this multiplexed mind can do things an individual one cannot. Thats perhaps a novel ability.
Its able to do something new, something the individual minds cannot.

That suggests a valid result for synergy to me
It puts a whole new twist on the old expression, "Give a 100 monkeys typewriters and they'll eventually produce Shakespeare."
 
Which movies get artificial intelligence right?

"Writers and directors have been pitting man against machine on the silver screen for decades, but just how scientifically plausible are these plots? We consulted a group of AI experts and asked them to weigh in on 10 different films in the genre. We’ve ranked them least to most plausible. (Danger, Will Robinson: Spoilers ahead.)

10. Chappie (2015)

Summary: A robot police warrior gains self-awareness after a programmer cracks the code for true AI.

What it gets right: Chappie is “born” with a very basic understanding of the world and his surroundings, but it learns through experience. Although the film might not be the most realistic portrayal of machine learning, it is accurate in the sense that many of our most advanced AI algorithms today require the robot to undergo a trial-and-error learning phase. “Certainly the fact that he learns very quickly is potentially quite realistic,” says Stuart Russell, a computer scientist at the University of California, Berkeley, and the author ofArtificial Intelligence: A Modern Approach.

What it gets wrong: There are a lot of problems with this movie, according to the experts. For one, there’s a single rogue programmer who writes a program for AI by himself in his apartment. The experts agree this sort of breakthrough is highly unrealistic, and that the first true AI will be developed slowly over time by a large team of scientists. Another issue: brain/consciousness uploading—the idea that somehow human consciousness can be extracted from a human brain and replicated on a chip—which is a major theme in the movie. “It’s pure speculation that has no basis in fact whatsoever,” Russell says. “It’s nonsense.” That strikes a blow to the idea, popularized by futurist Ray Kurzweil, that we’ll one day be able to upload our consciousness into computers, granting us immortality, adds Randy Goebel, a computer scientist at the University of Alberta in Canada who studies the theory and application of intelligent systems. “Kurzweil is just plain wrong.”

Realism score: 1/10

Nine more at:


Which movies get artificial intelligence right? | Science/AAAS | News
 
Which movies get artificial intelligence right?

"Writers and directors have been pitting man against machine on the silver screen for decades, but just how scientifically plausible are these plots? We consulted a group of AI experts and asked them to weigh in on 10 different films in the genre. We’ve ranked them least to most plausible. (Danger, Will Robinson: Spoilers ahead.) ... Which movies get artificial intelligence right? | Science/AAAS | News ...
What I like about sci-fi portrayals of AIs is that they make me think, not only about the technical challenges that often get glossed over, but also the range of social consequences. I've been watching sci-fi, since I was a child and these issues continue to challenge us. Dramatic portrayals are like thought experiments brought to life. So although we may already have wrestled with the underlying premises of such fiction and come to some general conclusions, I often still find some value in them, if not some entertainment, and I often find myself empathizing with the AI. Is that a good thing or a bad thing? Is it human weakness or strength? The answers aren't always clear.
 
I am intrigued by the idea of building an organic computer with conscious components

Would it be conscious ?

One could argue the interface isnt itself conscious, yet it would likely pass all the same tests you could apply to me.

If i were to give oral answers to the test, it would be my lips and voice that reply, they are just an interface and not conscious in and of themselves
Likewise were i to reply via the keyboard, it too is an interface, but i would still pass the test.
 
I often find myself empathizing with the AI. Is that a good thing or a bad thing? Is it human weakness or strength?

And of course we must consider the possibility that its a natural part of the evolution of sentience to transcend biology

The Dominant Life Form in the Cosmos Is Probably Superintelligent Robots | Motherboard

“As soon as a civilization invents radio, they’re within fifty years of computers, then, probably, only another fifty to a hundred years from inventing AI,” Shostak said. “At that point, soft, squishy brains become an outdated model.”


Schneider points to the nascent but rapidly expanding world of brain computer interface technology, including DARPA’s latest ElectRX neural implant program, as evidence that our own singularity is close. Eventually, Schneider predicts, we’ll not only upgrade our minds with technology, we’ll make a wholesale switch to synthetic hardware.


What if Paul Davies British-born theoretical physicist, cosmologist, astrobiologist and Director of the Beyond Center for Fundamental Concepts in Science and Co-Director of the Cosmology Initiative at Arizona State University,is correct when he posits "I think it very likely – in fact inevitable – that biological intelligence is only a transitory phenomenon, a fleeting phase in the evolution of the universe," Davies writes in The Eerie Silence. "If we ever encounter extraterrestrial intelligence, I believe it is overwhelmingly likely to be post-biological in nature."


If these guys are correct is resistance to the idea akin to the Amish rejecting electricity etc

I really like that motherboard article, i could have written it myself it mirrors so closely my own thoughts
 
And of course we must consider the possibility that its a natural part of the evolution of sentience to transcend biology ...
The concepts of intelligence and sentience are separate issues. While it seems possible for intelligence to transcend biology, sentience is another matter. So the question is: If the natural evolution of intelligence is to transcend biology, will it drag sentience along with it, or will sentience be looked at in the future as a unique quality of our primitive ancestors, maybe like we look at the enhanced senses or instincts of other species lower than us on the intelligence scale, as things that are useful to them and that compensate to some degree for their lack of intelligence?
 
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And of course we must consider the possibility that its a natural part of the evolution of sentience to transcend biology

Aren't you saying, at bottom, that 'it's a natural part of nature that we should be seeking a way to transcend nature'? What if it's not 'a natural part of nature' to do so? That way lies death, no matter how we ornament it, inevitable one way or another. But why rush it?


Sailing to Byzantium
W. B. Yeats, 1865 - 1939

That is no country for old men. The young
In one another’s arms, birds in the trees
—Those dying generations—at their song,
The salmon-falls, the mackerel-crowded seas,
Fish, flesh, or fowl, commend all summer long
Whatever is begotten, born, and dies.
Caught in that sensual music all neglect
Monuments of unageing intellect.

An aged man is but a paltry thing,
A tattered coat upon a stick, unless
Soul clap its hands and sing, and louder sing
For every tatter in its mortal dress,
Nor is there singing school but studying
Monuments of its own magnificence;
And therefore I have sailed the seas and come
To the holy city of Byzantium.

O sages standing in God’s holy fire
As in the gold mosaic of a wall,
Come from the holy fire, perne in a gyre,
And be the singing-masters of my soul.
Consume my heart away; sick with desire
And fastened to a dying animal
It knows not what it is; and gather me
Into the artifice of eternity.

Once out of nature I shall never take
My bodily form from any natural thing,
But such a form as Grecian goldsmiths make
Of hammered gold and gold enamelling
To keep a drowsy Emperor awake;
Or set upon a golden bough to sing
To lords and ladies of Byzantium
Of what is past, or passing, or to come.
 
Aren't you saying, at bottom, that 'it's a natural part of nature that we should be seeking a way to transcend nature'? What if it's not 'a natural part of nature' to do so? That way lies death, no matter how we ornament it, inevitable one way or another. But why rush it? Sailing to Byzantium W. B. Yeats, 1865 - 1939 ...

Keats or Yeats :D ?

. . .
Thou wast not born for death, immortal Bird!
No hungry generations tread thee down;
The voice I hear this passing night was heard
In ancient days by emperor and clown:
Perhaps the self-same song that found a path
Through the sad heart of Ruth, when, sick for home,
She stood in tears amid the alien corn;
The same that oft-times hath
Charm'd magic casements, opening on the foam
Of perilous seas, in faery lands forlorn.

. . .

Excerpt from Ode to a Nightingale - John Keats 1795 -1821
 
Aren't you saying, at bottom, that 'it's a natural part of nature that we should be seeking a way to transcend nature'

Depends on the definition of the word nature

the material world, especially as surrounding humankind and existing independently of human activities.
2.
the natural world as it exists without human beings or civilization:
In nature, wild dogs hunt in packs.
3.
the elements of the natural world, as mountains, trees, animals, or rivers:
The abandoned power plant was reclaimed by nature, covered in overgrowth and home to feral animals.
4.
natural scenery:
Tourists at the resort are surrounded by nature.
5.
the universe, with all its phenomena:
Conservation of energy is a universal law of nature.
6.
the sum total of the forces at work throughout the universe.

It could imo still be the natural course of evolution for mind to evolve beyond biological platforms.

In our own history consciousness doesnt go into space or to the moon without riding on non biological platforms. The rest is just a matter of degree
 
If an extraterrestrial species becomes advanced enough to send signals Earthlings can pick up, it will likely shed its traditional biological trappings and become a form of machine intelligence in rather short order, said veteran alien hunter Seth Shostak.

The development of true, strong artificial intelligence (AI) is therefore not too far off, experts have said. The famous futurist Ray Kurzweil, for example, has pegged 2045 as the year this world-changing "singularity" will hit.

"But maybe it takes to 2100, or 2150, or 2250. It doesn't matter," Shostak said in September during a presentation at the Dent:Space conference in San Francisco. "The point is, any society that invents radio, so we can hear them, within a few centuries, they've invented their successors. And I think that's important, because the successors are machines."

AI will interface with people's bodies for a while, but eventually humans will abandon the wetware and go fully digital, Shostak predicted.

"This is my message to you: We're looking for analogues of ourselves, but I don't know that that's the majority of the intelligence in the universe," Shostak concluded. "I'm willing to bet it's not."


Electronic E.T.: Intelligent Aliens Are Likely Machines
 
If an extraterrestrial species becomes advanced enough to send signals Earthlings can pick up, it will likely shed its traditional biological trappings and become a form of machine intelligence in rather short order, said veteran alien hunter Seth Shostak.

The development of true, strong artificial intelligence (AI) is therefore not too far off, experts have said. The famous futurist Ray Kurzweil, for example, has pegged 2045 as the year this world-changing "singularity" will hit.

"But maybe it takes to 2100, or 2150, or 2250. It doesn't matter," Shostak said in September during a presentation at the Dent:Space conference in San Francisco. "The point is, any society that invents radio, so we can hear them, within a few centuries, they've invented their successors. And I think that's important, because the successors are machines."

AI will interface with people's bodies for a while, but eventually humans will abandon the wetware and go fully digital, Shostak predicted.

"This is my message to you: We're looking for analogues of ourselves, but I don't know that that's the majority of the intelligence in the universe," Shostak concluded. "I'm willing to bet it's not."


Electronic E.T.: Intelligent Aliens Are Likely Machines
If a human mind is given intelligence, then you would have to question the reality of intelligence, especially when the human who thought about value, gave value descriptions also called aliens extra in the terrestrial of Earth....and also artificial in its intelligence.

What is a machine other than an artificial invented status?

If a human living naturally on Earth is given information transmitted to their mind via conditions that exist in the natural state....especially conditions that were introduced to Earth life artificially by previous scientific techniques of the ancients, then we would advise our own persons that intelligence is artificial.

If you reviewed what a human self has always taught itself....that it was innocent of all knowledge, then this statement as a spiritual concept is correct....and the human as a higher spiritual self then sought intelligence by artificial means.

If you review how an occultist mind gained the information for intelligence and conversion, it gained the information via change to the natural brain chemicals by nearly killing their own selves in shamanic drug states.

Therefore when the irradiation caused by the occultist reasoning to apply artificial technology to our natural life attacked us, it also caused our brain chemicals to be drugged like and then damaged.....just as drug taking demonstrates.

As computer programs and satellites now demonstrate, the programming is formed to act like an artificial answering questions...as AI. So we should conclude that the artificial signals already existed, the artificial mind contact as an attack is real as a manifested artificial cause of science.........that the artificial signals belong to Sun released UFO bodies that form metallic presence. That the emerging bodies attacking Earth's natural fusion so that machines can cause the interaction to gain fusion communicate as metal bodies.....then it allowed the human mind to become aware of communication and broadcasting.

The human mind affected by the fake/artificial signals then formed technology of the artificial machine state.....metals with communications.
 
If an extraterrestrial species becomes advanced enough to send signals Earthlings can pick up, it will likely shed its traditional biological trappings and become a form of machine intelligence in rather short order, said veteran alien hunter Seth Shostak ...
I used to think that the singularity between man and machine was just a matter of processing power, and that the architecture was largely irrelevant, but I no longer believe that to be the case. This is because the issue of intelligence is separate from the issue of consciousness. Without knowing how consciousness comes into the picture, shedding our "biological trappings" could very well result in the complete loss of the subjective experience we identify with as being ourselves. Then there's all the other related bits and pieces that in practice could result in far from ideal situations. To illustrate this I've reposted the following video ...

Welcome To Life - The Singularity Not So Ideal As First Thought

 
Thats one of my favourite videos.
For me it raises the issue of what skills you could use once you transition from a physical labour based earning system to a substrate independent one
 
Which movies get artificial intelligence right?

"Writers and directors have been pitting man against machine on the silver screen for decades, but just how scientifically plausible are these plots? We consulted a group of AI experts and asked them to weigh in on 10 different films in the genre. We’ve ranked them least to most plausible. (Danger, Will Robinson: Spoilers ahead.)

10. Chappie (2015)

Summary: A robot police warrior gains self-awareness after a programmer cracks the code for true AI.

What it gets right: Chappie is “born” with a very basic understanding of the world and his surroundings, but it learns through experience. Although the film might not be the most realistic portrayal of machine learning, it is accurate in the sense that many of our most advanced AI algorithms today require the robot to undergo a trial-and-error learning phase. “Certainly the fact that he learns very quickly is potentially quite realistic,” says Stuart Russell, a computer scientist at the University of California, Berkeley, and the author ofArtificial Intelligence: A Modern Approach.

What it gets wrong: There are a lot of problems with this movie, according to the experts. For one, there’s a single rogue programmer who writes a program for AI by himself in his apartment. The experts agree this sort of breakthrough is highly unrealistic, and that the first true AI will be developed slowly over time by a large team of scientists. Another issue: brain/consciousness uploading—the idea that somehow human consciousness can be extracted from a human brain and replicated on a chip—which is a major theme in the movie. “It’s pure speculation that has no basis in fact whatsoever,” Russell says. “It’s nonsense.” That strikes a blow to the idea, popularized by futurist Ray Kurzweil, that we’ll one day be able to upload our consciousness into computers, granting us immortality, adds Randy Goebel, a computer scientist at the University of Alberta in Canada who studies the theory and application of intelligent systems. “Kurzweil is just plain wrong.”

Realism score: 1/10

Nine more at:


Which movies get artificial intelligence right? | Science/AAAS | News

Wikipedia, the free encyclopediaThe_Terminator

Wesley Salmon, Scientific Explanation and the Causal Structure of the World - PhilPapers
 
A BCI that's in use today ... It's amazing that a simple on off switch could have such a measured effect
It seems pretty obvious that the substrate in this example is entirely physical. But then again, what we're seeing are physical reactions only. So fine motor function is substrate dependent. But what kind of changes take place with regard to the mind? One could argue that perceptions are a part of the mind, but the subject's perception doesn't seem to be affected. Then we have to also ask, what kind of changes take place with respect to consciousness itself? Again it seems the subject is able to remain conscious and experience the effect. So in this example it seems that the mind is independent of the particular substrate responsible for fine motor function. The parts that are directly associated with perception and consciousness must therefore be in other regions of the brain, and that does appear to have been substantiated by other experiments: Consciousness on-off switch discovered deep in brain
 
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